Contents

THE RATING GAME We take you and your Rating Game Chaperone on an all-expenses-paid evaluation trip through 347 games!

COMPUTERS MADE EASY By Douglas Turing You can compute. Computers aren't scary. Their bark is worse than their byte.

SAVE THE WORLD By Michael Blanchet You're in an arcade crisis situation. Can you get yourself out?

CHRISTMAS WISH LIST Joysticks to the world! What the stars want for Christmas

ASTROSMASH SUPER BOWL Mattel's playoff&mdashwho won and how they won.

WHY FROGS? By Randi Hacker A special in-depth report on the frog-induced state of video games.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU PLAY By Dr. Elayne Kahn and David Rudnitsky The games you play reveal your personality.

DIAL M FOR MODEM By Delores Haze Let your fingers do the walking. With a phone and a computer you can reach out and touch everything.

GAMEMAKERS: THE GOOD DOCTOR By Dan Gutman From medicine to microproc essors to Micro Surgeon&mdashan interview with Imagic’s video designer Rick Levine.

FIRST SCREENING: READERS’ PROGRAMS Time-travelling with 17-year-old Nick Thoele in his TRS-80 game Destroyus.

INSIDE COLECOVISION By Marc Wielage Handling the hot new game system—an in-depth report.

GIVE ME VIC-tory! By Walter Salm You can't tell your computer without a program and the VIC-20 is a first-rate introduction to programming.

HITS AND MISSILES Michael Blanchet goes ape over Donkey Kong…Dan Gutman rides Space Jockey…Randi Hacker survives a Demon Attack…Frank Lovece breaks Airlock and more. Plus Star Raiders and other computer games.

Editorial A word from the editors

Letters We welcome your feedback

New Products The latest in equipment

Output/Input Got a question? We’ve got the answer

ScreenPlay Michael Blanchet’s strategy tips

EFG Times You read it here first

Glitches An irreverent gazette of gaming news

The Ultlmate Vlideo Game Can you design it?

A Show of Handhelds The latest in games-to-go

The EAT Report Jens von der Heide on games

Random Access Computer news from CPU to you